Rev. Watson, Who Trained MLK, Dies at 98

[Eugene]

Rev. Watson, Who Trained MLK, Dies at 98

The Associated Press
Saturday, June 24, 2006; 11:08 AM

ATLANTA -- The Rev. Melvin H. Watson, who helped train Martin Luther King Jr. and
other civil rights leaders, has died. He was 98.

Watson, who lived in Atlanta, died Monday following surgery at Crawford Long Hospital,
said Walter Earl Fluker of Atlanta, executive director of the Leadership Center
at Morehouse College and Watson's son-in-law.

Watson exerted a quiet influence for more than half a century as senior pastor of Liberty
Baptist Church in Atlanta and as a religion professor at Morehouse College, Morehouse
School of Religion and the Interdenominational Theological Center.

Many of his students became civil rights leaders.

<snip>

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/24/AR2006062400406.html

[AlamoDemoc]

1. RIP Rev. Watson

...Rest In Peace.

[goclark]

2. RIP ~ great one nt

[UrbScotty]

3. May he rest in peace. (nt)

[Charlie Brown]

4. RIP, Reverend nt

[psychopomp]

5. RIP Rev.

Bless

[rman]

6. hoping this is not inappropriate:

Jury rules King assassination a conspiracy

"An Act Of State - The Execution of MLK"
by William Pepper,
(ISBN: 1859846955, Verso January 1, 2003)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1859846955/104-1291585-3918336?v=glance&n=283155

William Pepper is former attorney for James Earl Ray, and attorney for the King family.
He represents Pakistan as council for asset search and recovery work, trying to get back money that was stolen by prime ministers Buto and Sharif.


Excerpts from a lecture by William Pepper:

The King family had a long debate about whether or not to go through with this trial. Finally Coretta King stopped the debate. She said that in controversial situations she always asked herself what would Martin have done, what would he have wanted me to do, what would he have wanted this family to do. She said, without any doubt at all he would have said go and do it. And everybody else fell in line, because she makes those decisions for the family.

The trial was held in Memphis in 1999.
One year after filing we got the judge we wanted.
He was retiring. This was to be his last case.
It was a perfect situation for all of us.
This time it didn't take the jury seven hours,
it took them 59 minutes.
After 30 hours of testimony, 70 witnesses,
they came back with a verdict for the King family
which effectively exonerated James Earl Ray,
and ruled that there was a conspiracy to kill MLK,
involving agents of the government of the United States,
the State of Tennessee and the City of Memphis.
End of story, and you probably never heard of that verdict.
After the first 12 hours the trial didn't receive any publicity at all.


Some of the details revealed by the trial:
- there have been several assasination attempts on King before 1968
- commanding unit for the operation was the 902nd (military)
- involved were FBI, CIA, military, mafia
- primary shooter was civilian (mafia hit man hired by 902nd)
- 2 military sniper teams served as backup
- the actual hitman got away in a waiting Memphis traffic police car.

According to Pepper this is the most important assasination of the previous century, because MLK was the last of the 'freedom fighters' in the anglo-american world.

recommended reading:
John Pilger, "The new rulers of the world"
David Corton, "When corporations rule the world"
Carl Bernstein, Rolling Stone magazine, oct. 1977


video of the lecture
2 hrs, 700MB
http://www.chomskytorrents.org/TorrentDetails.php?TorrentID=862

----

also see

Democracy Now
Jury Rules King Assassination a Conspiracy
December 13th, 1999
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0414233&mode=thread&tid=5

CNN
Ray's death won't end assassination controversy
Interview with William Pepper
April 23, 1998
http://www.cnn.com/US/9804/23/james.earl.ray.reax/

The King Center
Complete Transcript of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination Conspiracy Trial
http://www.thekingcenter.org/news/trial.html

[fortyfeetunder]

7. A tribute to the supporting cast

The Revs MLK, Ralph Abernathy, Jesse Jackson were among the most visible in the civil rights movement. Actually was quiet giants like Rev Watson and others who were the supporting cast for bringing the civil rights struggle to the forefront of US society. We owe a debt of gratitude and tribute to these people.